Dad turns dead son into diamond

In a first-of-its-kind case in Italy, a grieving father had his dead son eternally preserved by getting the 20-year-old's ashes transformed into a diamond, Indian news agency PTI reported.

The father had his son's body exhumed and cremated before
sending the ashes off to Switzerland so they could be compressed into the
gemstone, the agency said.

According to the PTI report the young son,
killed in a car crash earlier this year, had already been buried in his hometown
of Treviso, in northern Italy, when his 55-year-old dad came up with the
idea.

Remembrance diamonds are created by filtering and refining the
carbon found in cremated ashes, then secured in a chamber, where intense
pressure and a temperature similar to that of a volcano are applied, creating a
synthetic diamond, 'The Local' reported.

The process can cost as much as
$18,000, PTI quoting 'New York Daily News', said.

The father recently
received the synthetic 'Remembrance Diamond' after an eight-month
weight.